Title: March 4, 2020 - A Different Wawona Meadow Hike
Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants
Hike Info:
Type:
Hiking
Trail:
Several areas,:
A around north end of golf course to Big Creek, Up Chowchilla
Mountain Road, Across Mt Savage, trail to Wawona Meadow Loop, and
flume back to Wawona Hotel
Destination:
Loop
Distance:
7.16
miles 1
Start
Time: 10:54
End
Time: 4:04
Travel
Time: 5:10 (1.39
mph)
Moving
Time: 3:28 (2.07
mph)
Elevation
Rise: 1,331'
Descent: 1,349‘
Maximum
Elevation: 4,818'
1The first quarter mile the GPS
was off or syncing up. So a better mileage is around 7.5 miles.
Dear readers of my blog: If
you are curious of what I said during my talks, you can follow the
links to the bottom of the blog, under background. Also Neither
Sherri nor I took that many pictures, so you will need to be content
with my words.
Another Meetup hike. This time
Sherri and I are organizing it. Carol comes by our house at 8:00am
and we are off to meet the rest of them. There are 23 of us on this
trip-one will meet us in Oakhurst. All show up and we leave at
8:30-Yippee. So we get to Oakhurst before 9:30, leaving Starbucks at
9:45. So far things are going to plan.
We gather up around 10:30. In
the parking lot, I give the start of my pedantic talks about what we
are seeing. I am fortunate as one of our fellow hikers, Tom used to
work at Wawona
and was curious enough about the stories of places. So he is able to
compliment what I have to say, or even correct some of it.
Our loop starts at the western end of the main parking lot by the store. Instead of doing the usual route cutting across the meadow on the Chowchilla Mountain Road, we go a bit more north and head towards the first hole of the golf course. Butterflies are frolicking all around us and will continue their play until we return to the road. We go to the far northern end of the golf course when we see the smokehouse.
It is here where we realized
that one of our group is not here. How can we have lost someone in
the first third of a mile on a road? Then we start remembering that
nobody saw him in the parking lot. So Sherri and several people go
back to the parking lot to see if he could be tracked down. The rest
of us will go onward.
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| Galen Clark's Sequoias |
Onward we go, back the way we
came, back to the smokehouse. Sherri and the others come along and
she takes them to the hatchery for a quick visual. But we go on,
veering off at the seventh hole. We head off into the forest instead
of the golf course. The four Sequoia trees which Galen Clark planted
are found, along with a clearing. Tom shows us the well which Clark
used. And then people found berms where structures stood. Exciting
investigating and finding the history of Yosemite right before our
eyes.
We are about to leave when
Sherri and the others catch up with us. They explain that the missing
person did not turn off, but realized he was not at the right spot
when he came to Wawona Tunnel. A day in Yosemite Valley is not a bad
compensation for our hike in Wawona.
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| The Well |
Then we take the Savage Road.
Funny how the mind plays tricks on you. I remember this road being
more series of gentle ups. But I think someone has changed it on me.
I seem to be constantly going up. An NPS truck down the road-I am
surprised. There is work being done on the new area by the entrance
gate. Now I have lost contact with the front group. My one concern is
that they will see the pole where the trail goes off. I can see some
of them going on and hitting the guard station. But all have stopped
at the right place. Relief.
Note to Gary: on the meetup
hike, I said something like Easy
to Moderate depending on route we take.
This is definitely moderate. A few people are feeling the more
moderate parts of this. But coming to the pole, we have finished the
hard part. It is almost all downhill. The problem is that once you
have used up your energy reserves and you are no longer feeling
fresh, it takes a lot to keep on trudging.
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| Liability Tree |
Today we found the trail
instead of going down the service road. Much better. Of course, when
we passed under a tree leaning, which looks like it may not lean too
many more years, I had to remind our hikers that they did agree to
absolve the hike organizers of all liability for this hike.
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| Wawona Meadow and Mt Savage |
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| Dinner at DiCicco's |
Background
Wawona
According to Shirley Sargent, the ruling historian of Wawona,, the
native Americans of the area called this area Pallahchun', meaning a
good place to stop. Many people found this to be true. Such as a
traveler by the name of J Smeaton Chase was by here around 1910 and
thought the area should be called Sleepy Hollow of the West. He
thought it was the most peaceful place in America. But even before it
being called Wawona, in 1852, according to Steven F Grover, it was
called Crane Flat-which is now along Highway 120. The reason? A large
crane was shot here. By 1857, it got to be known as Clark’s Station
beccause of the hospitality of Galen Clark. Then when Edwin Moore got
half interest in the Hotel in 1869, it was known as Clark and
Moore’s. It was not until 1882, after the Washburns took over the
running of the Wawona Hotel did the area gets its present name of
Wawona, It is in dispute about what Wawona mean, either Big Trees or
Great Sleepy Owl-probably more l;ke the call of this owl.
Wawona
Golf Course In
1917,the Washburns added the Hotel Annex and the Sequoia building, a
swimming pool, a 3,035 yard golf course in one end of the meadow and
a landing field in the other. When you look at the creek which runs
along side of the golf course, sometimes you can see beavers.
Wawona
Smokehouse
Take a look at this building. It is currently being used as a pro
shop for the golf course. But any guesses about its original use?
If
you were standing here in the 1920’s, you might be meeting Ah You,
Ah Louie, or Ah Wee, of which Ah You was one of the finest chef’s
in the area for about 50 years. These Chinese men were chef’s,
laundry or other workers. They lived in a house near here. During
World War II the smoke house burnt.
Wawona
Fish Hatchery.
There are two things which the modern tourists would never guess was
in this area. The first is what we are standing close to: the Wawona
Fish Hatchery. the hatchery opened in 1895 to provide fish for the
lakes and streams in Yosemite. Started by the Yosemite Stage Lines,
then the California Fish&Game (probably its forerunner). The idea
was to generate 500,000 eggs annually.
This was a tourist spot as
guests would come out to see fish hatch
By all accounts it was well
run. When the hatchery at Happy Isles closed, its equipment moved
here.But a problem would happen around July 1st
of each year. Any guesses? The water from Big Creek which fed the
hatchery would get warm enough that algae would form, sucking the
oxygen out of the water, killing the fish. By 1928 the hatchery was
closed.
The second thing was the
Wawona Arboretum. It was over beyond the ridge and I have not see the
area yet. But the reports I have read is you can only find traces of
it, even though 25 years ago there was a plan to restore it. The
Arboretum was constructed in 1904 by the 9th Army Cavalry (i.e.,
Buffalo soldiers) and 24th Infantry About 1,400’ west of the
confluence of Big Creek and the south fork of the Merced., on the
slope above the river. It was acting park superintendent Major John
Bigelow, Jr, who commanded Troops K and L and the 9th Cavalry who
created the first National Parks arboretum. 75 acres. It was the
first marked nature trail in the National park system.
Galen
Clark’s Cabin
What do you know about Galen Clark?
He
came to Wawona to homestead in 1856 because a doctor had told him he
did not have long to live because of consumption. He was then 43 and
lived to be 96, 1910.
In 1853, gold fever seized
Clark and he left his children with Eastern relatives to go to the
gold fields. Clark came to California by steamer. Intending to work
at his trade of chair maker he instead headed for the Mariposa area
where he worked variously as a miner, packer, camp-keeper and hunter.
He camped at the meadows in Wawona in 1855 and returned there in
1856. Clark wrote that, after a hemorrhage of the lungs, he went to
Wawona for his health and “spent the first season in leisure.”
His idea of “leisure” was
to homestead a 160-acre ranch and build Clark’s Station, a rough
overnight lodging place for tourists. lark was well loved for his
erudition, gentleness, integrity, independence, modesty and devotion
to the wonders of Yosemite. He was the second white man to see the
Mariposa Grove of Big Trees
Oh yeah, he was also the first
Guardian of Yosemite, in 1864 for about 30 or so years.
Chowchilla
Mountain Road
The road from Raymond to Wawona generally followed the route of
present State Highway 41, while the stage route from Mariposa, called
the Chowchilla Mountain Road, exists today, rutty, dusty and
little-changed from its 1870 route.
Flume/Irrigation Ditch
Springs, wells, a large irrigation ditch supplying water for cattle,
hogs, sheep, horses as well as crops of hay in the extensive meadows
were developed.
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| Hunting for the footprint of Galen Clark's cabin |
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| Wild Turkey's |
Flowers and Plants
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| Fungi |
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| Fungi |
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| Fungi |
